A tiny detail on the controversial two-meter high circular painting of a vagina entitled “Apparatus” (see photo at top) is the cause of differing opinions of the installation ENCARNACION, on view at Galeria Studio Cerrillo. Some viewers consider the inclusion to be offensive and a deprecation of the female. Meanwhile, artist Shawn McDonough explains that the fly is a traditional painting device meant to remind the viewer of the presence of death in still-life paintings (typically of fruit and flowers) whose central theme is life.
“Apparatus” is just one in a series of ten paintings in the installation, which features a thirteen-foot-high retablo made of junk-food wrappers and varnish.

ENCARNACIÓN
Retablo e íconos por Shawn McDonough

ARTIST’S STATEMENT
What I painted.
The INCARNATION is the theological principal upon which the Christian faith is founded— God’s decision to become man in Jesus. But God would enter the world only with the consent of a woman. The exhibition ENCARNACION explores and celebrates all of the archetypal implications of this accedence of Mary the Ever-Virgin, Mary the Lone Provider, Mary the Vain Matron, Mary the Sister in Ceremony, etc.

Why I paint this.
My interest as a painter is not so much in making art, as in making icons. In the presence of the religious icon, it is supposed that the viewer enters into a direct, two-way communication with the archetypal theme represented; so that the artist, having produced a mere variation on that theme, disappears. It is satisfying to imagine that in this arrangement, the modern triangle of artist/viewer/art is sundered, so that the experience may lose that obnoxious, modern sensation of meaningfulness— that is, if it avoids that obnoxious, age-old sensation of indoctrination.

Other Work.
For many religious persons, and some few artists, sacral icons still function for the purpose which they were designed: to “speak to” those who stand before them in faith. With the re-production of sacral icons, the religious feasts that are celebrated year after year in towns and barrios across Mexico provide the opportunity to imbibe these annual customs with a mystical/aesthetical experience. Recent exhibitions have explored other religious themes such as the Via Crucis in “Crucifixación” (2003), the sainthood of San Cristóbal in “Santo Ya No” (2004) and religious inspiration in “derepentecostés” (2005).